GENERATION OF ULTRASHORT PULSES FROM THE VISIBLE TO THE INFRARED

We report on the generation of fs to sub-ps pulses by optical parametric oscillation with broadband tunability from the visible to the infrared. Pumping with the frequency doubled pulse train of a Nd:glass laser. we achieve continuously tunable parametric pulses from 0.7 to 1.8 mum with an almost constant pulse duration of 200 +/- 50 fs. A special feature is observed near degeneracy where we obtain pulses as short as 65 fs by the help of chirp reversal and self compression. Further down-conversion of the OPO pulses with the fundamental of the glass laser yields tunable pulses in the infrared from 3.3 to 10 mum.